User blog:ThisWriter/Verse, Realm, Plane, these words we use
I have been validely criticized about my liberal usage of the word "universe" to mean things very different from our universe. So here is my attempt at defining these words in a little bit more precise way to avoid confusions. At least in the way that I use them. I'm not trying to mandate these definitions into anyone else. Verse Verse has been used on the wiki as a generic word for any type of cosmological structure that relates (is similar enough) to the universe as we know it at least in some way. This word is usually in conjunction with a prefix which usually indicates at what level in the cosmology the structure exists. That is what originates words like Universe, Multiverse, Megaverse, Archverse, Omniverse and many others. They simply indicate a generic verse that exists at a certain level of the cosmological hierarchy. There are some exceptions to this rule though, with specific types of verses also being named something-verse. These usually refer to specific types of universes, or universes with specific properties but they could be generalized to exist at any other level also (by the cosmological law of As above so below). When that happens, when a type of universe called something-verse is generalized to some other cosmological level, in order to refer to it at a specific position of the cosmological hierarchy it should receive both prefixes to indicate its new state, ending up being called something-levelprefix-verse (ex: something-multiverse). Realm Realm is a word that has much lesser usage in conversations and discussions on the community. Its definition is probably not as strong or, at least, not as useful and that is probably the reason for its lack of usage. It is currently defined as being similar to a verse but usually having a purpose such as containing beings. I don't like this definition and don't think it is useful at all. Defining something by its intended purpose requires that one knows what it was intended for. It implies some conscience behind its existence as well, to give it its purpose. If one looks at the pages that are listed on this category I think that a more adequate definition like an abstract structure is more appropriate, in opposition to a concrete one which would be a verse. Most realms are either spiritual or divine in nature somehow or they relate to gods. Others are just structures that cannot be said to match any type of physical reality at all and correspond to structures that are usually called Voids or extradimensional or interdimensional spaces, etc; as is the case with the Rifters' Realm that was classified as a realm probably because of its name alone. In my opinion categorizing these things as voids should be enough instead of also calling some of them realms. This category is also complicated by the confusion with the mathematical definition for the term realm which basically means a 3D space. The page for the word realm redirects to the Euclidean Realm which follows this math based reasoning but does not make things simpler for this category. In my opinion this category should be cleaned and left to the mathematical meaning of the word only. Things like voids and interdimensional spaces should be categorized as voids and spiritual realms should remain categorized as part of the already existing Transcended Cosmology or maybe some new Spiritual or Abstract Realms category. A possible example of what could be an abstract realm (and not a spiritual one) would be the Schemafield which is defined as a pseudo-structure instead of just a structure and is an abstract place, not a physical one. Although all current structures classified as realms mostly exist immediately above Omniverse level, spiritual or abstract structures could probably exist at any level of the cosmological scale. Plane This is a word that was mostly introduced on the wiki by me on the page Universes by Similarity. It was defined as applying to all types of cosmological structures. Simply meaning, everything from a Pocket Universe of limited size, an Incomplete verse or an isolated Verse Component up to the Box is a plane. So its general definition is all encompassing and includes that of verses, all types of realms, spiritual or abstract, voids, etc. It also has a more limited specific meaning, in that case a plane simply means some type of structure that exists at the same level as that of the universe but which is not itself a (uni)verse. So, in this sense of the word, every cosmological structure that exists at that level and is not a verse is a plane. Like with other cases, this can also apply to other levels of the hierarchy to mean any cosmological structure at any level that is also not a verse. So, by this specific definition of the word plane, there are two types of cosmological structures: verses and planes. Verses are the more physical and recognizably based on our universe where planes are everything else. To, hopefully make things easier and clearer, I'm defining a few new words in here. Even I'll keep the generic use of the word plane to mean any and all cosmological structures, I'm using the same prefixes used with verses to build new words for every level of the cosmological hierarchy. That gets us Uniplane to mean any plane at the level of a universe; Multiplane for any plane at the level of a multiverse, Megaplane, Archplane, Omniplane and so on for all possible levels at the scale. I'm also defining the words Overplane to refer to anything that is larger than a omniverse (structures that are classified as being part of the Beyond Cosmology category) and Hyperplane for any structure larger than a universe but smaller or identical to a omniverse (structures that are classified as being part of the Super Cosmology category). Even with these two new definitions, the general meaning of the word plane still includes all overplanes and hyperplanes and the specific meaning of the word plane still includes all hyperplanes that are also not verses. There are no actual verses (per the definition, although the word does appear once or twice) in Beyond Cosmology so the specific meaning of the word plane and the word overplane at levels higher than that of the omniverse are identical. List of definitions An indexed list of definitions and how they relate to each other is presented below for simplicity. *Plane - General meaning: all structures at all levels **Verse - Physical or universe like structures at all levels up to omniverse level only ***Specific verses by level: universe, multiverse, megaverse, archverse, omniverse ***Specific names by type - Can be generalized to any level (ex: deathverse could also be death-multiverse) **Non-verse - Non physical or way too different from what a universe should be like, at all levels. Also called a plane (specific meaning of the word) ***Abstract realm (or abstract plane) - Non physical, at any level ***Spiritual realm (or spiritual plane) - In relation to spirituality or divinity, possibly at any level ***Specific names by level: uniplane, multiplane, megaplane, archplane, omniplane ***All at a level higher than universe, up to omniverse - Hyperplane (matches Super Cosmology) ***All above the level of omniverse - Overplane (matches Beyond Cosmology) ***Specific names by type - Structures can be called something-plane or something-realm at any level of the hierarchy Note This is my beginning attempt at creating some kind of glossary for the wiki, to establish some common ground on the definitions for these terms that we are using. I'm obviously starting with my definitions because, well, those are what I'm used to and because there where no others in place on the wiki for the same things but this is not where it should stop. Category:Blog posts